2025 AK Moose Drop Hunt. Archery/Rifle From Start to Finish

[CommonRookie]

This thread will document our process from start to finish of planning, prepping and executing a partial DIY drop hunt in AK in 2025. This is a bucket list adventure for me and my hunting buddy. Rockslide forums have been a huge part of our early planning and this thread will be an attempt to consolidate and share what we learn along the way in hopes that it helps someone else in the future.

Hunt Location: Iliama, AK Area
Dates: Sept, 2025
Style: Drop Hunt, Self Guided
Transport Service/Planner: Bushwhack Alaska
Weapon: Archery w/ Rifle Backup

 

[CommonRookie]

Guided, Pure DIY or Partial Service?

If this is something you're considering at all, you should start now. Most good operations are at least 1-2 years out on bookings and it doesn't hurt to get yourself on wait lists now. We have both been on serval moose hunts as cameramen so we felt confident in our ability to execute the hunt unguided. While I don't find moose hunts to be particularly difficult I do think it would be tough to go unguided for your first. Fully guided options were out of our price range and booked many years in advance so we settled on an unguided hunt. This is an expensive endeavor and requires a lot of time off from work and away from families. We looked at a lot of pure DIY options and felt like it was worth the investment of a service to boost our odds of success and close the knowledge gap since this isn't something we expect to be able to do often.

After calling around serval operations based on suggestions here we landed on Bushwhack AK operating out of Iliamna. Our primary objective is killing 2 mature bulls with bows. We aren't planning on being picky about the size but Bushwhack expressed confidence in our chances and their DIY hunts have a high success rate and quality of animal. They charge a premium but we liked what they had to say and their overall approach. Ultimately, we felt like it was an investment in the overall experience and booked.

Cost: $12,500/hunter (30% deposit at booking)
Includes: Hunt Planning and Coordination, transport from Iliamna to drop camp, hunter extraction, animal extraction. Raft/boat based on hunting location and style. Satellite communication device.
Does not include: Camp Gear, License, Tags, etc.

 

[CommonRookie]

To Float or not to Float?

What have you guys done and what's your preferred method? For most DIYers I think a basecamp with a powered boat is less feasible so it comes down to float or basecamp for most. If you had to pick one, which would you do?

When first beginning the planning we were pretty set on a float. While a float hunt gives us the opportunity to cover more ground it presents a couple logistical challenges. We are two hunters with tags. Should a guy kill, the float stops for the amount of time it takes to breakdown and extract that animal which at best would be a couple days based on conditions and circumstances. This means who ever still had a tag in his pocket is more or less stuck with the animal as well until the float can continue. It's not a huge problem but certainly one we didn't consider when comparing the two approaches.

Another downside of floating that we hadn't considered was the prospect of striking and setting camp everyday in the dark. I've done this on backpack hunts for sheep but almost always in high country where it's generally dry and a minimalist approach is fairly easy and necessary. The prospect of locating a suitable site and setting/striking a potentially wet camp daily is less appealing to me.

On the flip side, I've been on a basecamp hunt that went dead. The bull we were after left the area and we spent the next several days hiking and sitting on ridge tops glassing up nothing.

 

[arctichunting]

Float float float. Shouldn’t really take more than a day to get it butchered and back to camp- just don’t shoot that far away . Depending on length of float don’t need to float every day. Find a good area with sign and stay for a couple days. Treat it as multiple base camps vs floating every day. Even if you shoot one and are working on it no reason can’t call another one into that one!


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